By Alegria Haro
Demi Moore’s Roger Vivier slingbacks, Dua Lipa’s purple Ferragamo moment, Barbara Palvin in Jimmy Choo, Bella Hadid’s vintage Prada and sneakers. Suddenly, the most interesting Cannes looks are the ones happening between the premieres.
Cannes has never struggled with glamour. The gowns arrive. The diamonds arrive. Someone walks slowly up the steps while five hundred cameras make the whole thing feel vaguely supernatural.
Still, the looks worth thinking about this year are not all happening on the carpet. They are turning up at beach parties, hotel exits, airport arrivals and brand events, where the styling is still very much happening, just with a better alibi.
Demi Moore’s Roger Vivier look is the obvious place to start. Dressed in soft white with Belle Vivier slingbacks, she looked like daytime Cannes at its most expensive and least bothered. Technically off-duty, but only by Cannes standards. Nobody looks accidental here. Some people just make the preparation disappear.
That is the appeal of off-carpet dressing. A gown can be beautiful and still feel entirely unrelated to anyone’s life. A good daytime look gives the viewer something more dangerous: the illusion of possibility. A white skirt. A square-toe slingback. Sunglasses good enough to make a pavement feel like a set.
Dua Lipa took the same logic somewhere brighter. In Ferragamo Fall 2026, all sheer purple and sharp red accessories, she made Cannes daytime dressing feel playful without losing its polish. The red bag and pointed mules did most of the talking, cutting through the softness of the dress with the kind of colour contrast that makes an outfit instantly memorable.
Later, at La Plage Nespresso, she switched into archival Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2009 with Le Silla’s Shirley sandals, but the Ferragamo look feels closer to the off-duty mood here. It has that very Cannes quality of looking relaxed only because everything has been thought through. Purple by day, Gaultier by the water. A very good itinerary.
Barbara Palvin brought the mood back to daytime with the kind of look that makes Cannes off-duty style feel actually wearable. She wore Jimmy Choo’s Jelly Drop sandals with Gavin sunglasses and the Bar Holdall bag, pairing them with a pale blue oversized shirt and cropped black trousers.
It had the ease of someone between appointments, which is exactly why it works. The shirt looked borrowed in the best way, the bag had that slightly overpacked festival-week energy, and the sunglasses did what good Cannes sunglasses are supposed to do: make a lobby look like a location.
Anaïs Demoustier offered a quieter version of off-carpet polish at the La Vénus électrique photocall in Prada. A striped top tucked into dark tailored trousers might sound simple, but at Cannes, simplicity often needs more confidence than drama. The look had that French photocall ease: neat, intelligent, unfussy, with just enough shape to feel considered.
Photocall dressing sits in its own strange category. Not casual, not red carpet, not invisible either. It is where personal style has slightly more room to breathe, and Demoustier’s Prada look understood that.
Gemini Norawit’s off-duty look captures the Riviera mood perfectly. Wearing SIRIVANNAVARI Spring/Summer 2026 “Eternal Nautilus,” he leaned into nautical language through deep navy, relaxed tailoring and a sense of movement that felt made for the coast. Blue starts to feel like a thread running through Cannes off-duty style this season, moving from pale shirting to deep navy and denim by the Croisette.
Charles Melton carried that blue mood into menswear with Louis Vuitton. Denim jacket, matching trousers, brown shirt, black boots, sunglasses. The tones complement him perfectly, and the whole thing has that polished-unpolished ease that works so well on the Croisette. Very cool, very relaxed, still unmistakably Cannes.
Bella Hadid and Cate Blanchett both leaned into the sportier side of Cannes airport dressing, each through a different kind of movement. Hadid arrived in powder-blue Prada Spring 1999 with metallic Puma Speedcats, all zip-up lines, capri proportions and late-’90s speed. Somewhere between an airport look and a Riviera pit stop, it is the kind of outfit that makes people start Pinterest boards before the suitcase has even reached the hotel.
Blanchett’s beige jumpsuit worked in the same family, but with an aviation mood. The zip front, tinted sunglasses and soft utility shape made the look feel built for arrival. Cannes has always been about the red carpet, but the airport has become its own stage now, and this kind of travel dressing understands that completely.
The red carpet is still the official Cannes dream. Nobody is giving up the diamonds. But away from the steps, the clothes start doing something more useful. They suggest a day around the premiere. Glamour with errands. Glamour with a hotel key. Glamour with somewhere else to be.
And honestly, that might be the look everyone wants most.